“Do not argue with Warren.”
“What do I do?”
“Call a lawyer.”
“I can't afford one.”
Roy looked at traffic.
“Adrienne has counsel.”
“She said we could contact them.”
“Then contact them.”
Danny was silent.
“What if they blame us too?”
“They might.”
“That is not same as lying.”
Roy continued.
“Tell them exactly what you did.”
“What you knew.”
“When you knew it.”
“If you wrote a bad ticket because Warren told you, say that.”
“If you understood it was fraud, say that.”
“If you didn't, say that.”
“Do not improve yourself in hindsight.”
Danny whispered:
“I knew something was wrong.”
“How much?”
“I knew the reset would probably start the plane.”
“Did you know they were billing because it stayed grounded?”
“Yes.”
“Did you understand why?”
Danny did not answer.
Roy waited.
“Danny.”
“I think so.”
Honesty.
Painful.
Useful.
Roy said:
“Then tell them that.”
“I’ll lose my job.”
“Maybe.”
“That’s all you’ve got?”
Roy looked at the worn steering wheel of his van.
“No.”
“I’ve got this.”
“You can lose a job and still have a career.”
“You can lose money and still have yourself.”
“But if you lie now because you're scared of losing both, Warren owns the next fourteen years too.”
Danny breathed.
Roy heard him crying quietly.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don't apologize to me.”
“Call counsel.”
Roy ended call.
Then sat for nearly five minutes.
Afterward he called Adrienne.
She answered immediately.
“I thought the answer was no.”
“It was.”
“And?”
“Now it’s conditional.”
Her voice sharpened.
“What conditions?”
“Independent contract.”
“I report findings, not conclusions lawyers want.”
“Access to raw records.”
“Every client Warren worked on through your companies.”
“No publicity.”
“No video.”
“No ‘hero mechanic’ nonsense.”
Adrienne said nothing.
Roy continued.
“Your young technicians get independent counsel access before anybody threatens them.”
“I am not paying lawyers to coach witnesses.”
“Not coach.”
“Explain rights.”
“Fine.”
“And if I find your people did something wrong, you don't bury it.”
Silence.
“Adrienne?”
“Yes.”
“Last condition.”
“What?”
“My daughter gets picked up from school at three fifteen.”
Adrienne actually laughed.
The first time Roy heard it.
“Done.”
He spent the next ninety-one days doing the work that changed his life.
Not the ten seconds everyone online remembered.
Ninety-one days.
Most were boring.